O! Frabjous Day!

            

Szerykl surveys the Baltic Coast

Szerykl thought she couldn’t stand another gray day. “These short days without sun are making me really gloomy,” she whispered to Gummy the Spider, stuck in his web across the street.

 “Ja też! Me too!” groaned Gummy, who seemed even more glum than his usual soggy spinach self.

“You try breathing in all this smog!’ he complained

Szerykl had some complaints of her own!

Sheri and Michael did not understand rabbit things –the proper way to eat a hosta plant, for example, or how to speak the language of the little bugs that lived under the bed. If Sheri had her way, there wouldn’t be any bugs under the bed. And it was winter, which meant Szerykl couldn’t easily hop out of the window onto Karmelicka street and sneak yummy leaves from the plant store across the way. Even if she did, she’d be a sitting duck (well, if rabbits can be ducks) for those huge pigeons looking for a meal.

Just when she was feeling very sorry for herself, Szerykl picked up a familiar scent. Twitch! went her nose. Perk! went her ears.

Szerykl hopped to the window. As she turned away, a gust of wind blew something against the glass. A bunny? Could it be?

It was! But as quickly as it appeared, the little bunny disappeared—just like that – into a sudden puff of fog. All Szerykl could see was one golden rabbit ear. Then she heard a voice.

Another Magic Rabbit!!

“Oh jabberwocky! I can never get this right!”

Get what right?” Szerykl asked the voice.

“My vanishing act,” said the voice. “It’s not as easy as pulling a rabbit out of a hat, you know! I can’t always get that fog machine to work, so sometimes I disappear when I want to appear. And vice versa. But here I am, your new invisible rabbit friend!”

More bunny parts slowly appeared. Brown fur. Dark brown eyes. Golden ears. A very uncommon rabbit, whose gleaming ears brightened up the sunless room.  

“What’s your name?” asked Szerykl. “And where did you come from?”

“They call me Beamish,” burbled the golden-eared rabbit. “Like a sunbeam. Get it? I came all the way from Philadelphia to make your life shine a little brighter. Magical rabbits need to help each other out. Now, let’s get you out of this dreary place and go have some fun!”

Szerykl was ready. Sheri and Michael went places without her, that was for sure. So why not have an adventure without them for once?

“Let’s go!” she burbled.

“Oh frabjous!” cried Beamish.

Szerykl suggested they go to the Baltic Sea and look for amber, because she had heard Sheri and Michael say she could find some there. And so Beamish and Szerykl, just two bunnies in search of a thrill and hardly dressed for the Baltic Sea in the middle of winter, hopped aboard a train. There they found the conductor’s coat on a spare seat, snuggled into it and purred themselves to sleep for the 6-hour ride.

When they woke, they were in a city called Sopot, way way up in the north part of Poland. Szerykl and Beamish followed the smell of salt water to the beach of the Baltic Sea.

“What’s all this stuff on the sand?” Beamish wanted to know.

“Those are shells and pebbles,”  Szerykl told him. “And maybe some amber!”

No swim for Szerykl!

Just at that moment, Beamish disappeared. Toof!  Szerykl couldn’t even see his golden ears. But she could hear his voice.

“Great flaming bandersnatches!” he cried, wrestling with his fog machine.

Meanwhile, Szerykl looked closely at the shells and rocks. No amber, at least not that she could tell. But off in the distance, she saw some people on the beach. She watched as they took off some of their clothes. What?? She hopped closer.

They were going in the water! On a cold January morning!

“Come on in,” they yelled to her.

“Nothing doing!” she answered, keeping her little orange dress right where it belonged. “We’re looking for amber!”

“That would be easier at the amber museum over in Gdańsk!” shouted a man who had little icicles hanging from his beard.

Szerykl was able to find the invisible Beamish by all his scuffling with the fog machine.

“Callooh! Callay!” shouted Szerykl. She surprised herself. What language was this? Whatever – they were the Magic Words! First Beamish’s golden ears appeared, almost like the sun, and then all of him. Szerykl knew she had found the exact right magic words.

At the museum, there was so much to learn about amber! How it came from sap flowing out of trees in the forest 40 million years ago. That’s a really long time! Over years and years and years, the sap would harden.

Sometimes bugs would get trapped in the sap and couldn’t get out. So they were stuck there for all time.

“Look!” said Szerykl. A big spider – but not as big as Gummy – was inside a piece of amber on a shelf. You could even see all the tiny little hairs on its legs. And next to it was an even more amazing sight – a small lizard in amber.

“What’s it like to be trapped in amber?” she wondered out loud.

“THOSE ARE THE MAGIC WORDS!” yelled the spider. And just like that, Szerykl was inside the amber and the spider – free at last after 40 million years – was outside looking at her.

Szerykl was so frightened she made a loud bunny squeak. Help!! Where was Beamish?? “Callooh! Callay!!” she hollered.

But this time, the magic didn’t work, and her shouts just bounced back to her from inside her amber prison.

Will Szerykl escape???